The present invention relates generally to devices for hanging plant pots and, more particularly, is concerned with a three-piece plant pot hanger.
A conventional plant pot generally has a frusto-conical shaped body being larger in diameter at its open upper end than at its closed lower end, and an upper outer annular cylindrical collar on the upper end of the body. The upper collar typically has a stepped profile defining a lower outer annular shoulder at the upper end of the frusto-conical body.
It is currently popular to support plant pots at elevated locations on a vertical wall or support post by use of pot holders or hangers. Representative of the prior art pot hangers are the ones disclosed in U.S. Patents to Allderdice (U.S. Pat. No. 2,266,294), Pisano (U.S. Pat. No. 2,554,120), Lehnbeuter et al (U.S. Pat. No. 2,967,691), Yegge (U.S. Pat. No. 3,091,424), Thurman et al (U.S. Pat. No. 3,193,234), Chernewski (U.S. Pat. No. 4,071,976), Hunt (U.S. Pat. No. 4,422,610) and Studebaker (U.S. Pat. No. 4,623,113). Many of the hangers support the plant pot by engaging its upper collar and bottom. Others engage the pot inside the upper collar and below the lower shoulder of the collar. It is felt that many of these hangers provide an inadequate number and distribution of contact points with the plant pot for providing adequate support to the elevated plant pot.
One pot hanger, that of the Hunt patent, appears to take an approach having promise for improving the support capability of the hanger by providing a separate support point along the slanted side wall of the pot body. More particularly, in the hanger of this patent, a vertical base member is provided with first and second vertically spaced abutments which project laterally outward from the front face of the base member. The upper of these two abutments serves as a supporting ledge for the stepped collar of the plant pot and both abutments are sized and arranged to laterally abut the frusto-conical body of the pot at two different support points.
Also, in the Hunt hanger, a clamping member slidably interfits within channels defined on the rear face of the base member. The clamping member has downwardly and outwardly projecting hook portions which extend into the open top of the pot in engagement with the interior surface of the upper collar. The clamping member hook portions clamp the collar against the upper abutment of the hanger.
The clamping member can be vertically adjusted relative to the base member and thereby relative to the first abutment for accommodating therebetween pots having different size upper collars. However, the inability to adjust the upper and lower abutments relative to one another is a major drawback of the Hunt hanger design. The two abutments at their inner edges together can define a fixed pitch line at only a single given angle relative to the vertical making the abutments engageable only with a frusto-conical pot side wall having that same pitch angle relative to the vertical.
Although the Hunt hanger design might provide a rigidly secure mounting configuration for a plant pot, it is limited to use with pots having frusto-conical side walls at the same pitch angle. In order to accommodate plant pots having side walls of different pitch angles, the Hunt hanger requires an additional accessory which supports the pots at their bottoms. Thus, the above-mentioned drawback of the Hunt hanger design necessitates the added expense of another part.
Consequently, a need exists for improvements in hanger construction which will retain the increased number and improved distribution of contact points supporting a plant pot as provided in the Hunt design but will eliminate the above-mentioned drawback associated therewith.